CHAPTER 24
Levi kicked the door open, though he didn't move further before he could get an overview over the situation at hand.
I stopped just behind him, looking over his shoulder to create an overview for myself as well. Two guards were trying to hold down a blond-haired beauty, and at first I was confused as to they were treating her as if she was some kind of criminal – that was until I saw the unconscious body lying on the floor in front of her.
Levi had seen as well it seemed, as he ran forward.
"Out of the way," He hissed at the guard that was sitting at the body's side. As he was apparently too slow, Levi pushed him out of the way.
"Eren! Eren, can you hear me?" I could hear Levi say out, and it wasn't hard to detect the desperation in his voice. I could feel the tears pressing on, and the lump in my throat didn't help. It wasn't hard to understand what had happened here. The blond-haired girl was the criminal that Eren had to interrogate, and she had somehow attacked him before any of the guards could interfere. Now she was being put in handcuffs, though she was still trying to put up a fight. A guard had tried to revive Eren, but with no luck – And now Levi was trying to as well.
"Did you check if he was breathing?" Levi asked – no, more like yelled at the guard, as he started doing compressions onto Eren's chest.
"H-He wasn't when we c-came in …" The guard mumbled nervously, clearly intimidated by Levi's sudden fury.
"Did you give him CPR immediately after?"
"I n-never learned i-it … "
"You incompetent shit!" Levi screamed, stopping the compressions to give the guard a short look. "Go get Chief Pixis. NOW!"
The guard got up and left, running right past me. I was still standing in the doorway, clutching my shirt where my heart was supposed to be, as I watched Levi starting the compressions again. I could faintly hear him count the number of times he pressed down onto Eren's chest. When he had gotten the precise number of times, he stopped, and instead placed Eren's head into position. He placed a hand under his chin and pinched his nose. Then he bent down and pressed his lips against Eren's, in an attempt to get the oxygen going inside Eren. There was nothing romantic or passionate about it – yet I couldn't help but think that this probably wasn't how either of them wanted to kiss the other person.
It didn't seem to work, so Levi started the compressions again.
"Come on, Eren! Don't do this to me now!" Levi cried out, and I could hear how out of breath he had become. I took a step closer, just as Levi bent down to give him mouth-to-mouth again.
"You can't leave me, brat. I won't allow it," He whispered, and I was only barely able to hear it. Not because I wanted to listen in, it was pure luck. Yet I couldn't help but feel like I had invaded something rather personal from Levi's side.
I watched as he gave him mouth-to-mouth, and it almost came as a shock when Levi suddenly pulled back, and Eren started coughing. I sighed loudly of relief, and it was first then that I realised that I had been crying. The tears were slowly sliding over my cheeks, and dripping down onto the floor.
"… L-Levi ..." Eren mumbled after he was finished coughing. He opened his eyes, and I could see it in his eyes, as he recognized the face in front of him.
"Levi," He repeated, his voice sounding hoarse and weak. The corners of his mouth slowly turned upwards, in the same second as tears started forming in the corner of his eyes. His eyes looked hazy, and it didn't seem as if he was fully conscious yet – however, he still managed to lift both his arms, reaching out to Levi. In that exact moment, it looked like he couldn't be happier. The whole scenario reminded me of Sleeping Beauty, and it was almost as if Eren had awaken from his sleep, only to see that his prince was waiting for him.
Levi pulled him up in a sitting position, and as the space between them enclosed, their arms wrapped around the other person in a tight embrace.
They stayed that way for a moment, before Levi turned his head slowly, looking in my direction. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to after all – his eyes said it all.
Do you still believe he doesn't have feelings for me?
And the worst part of it all was that I didn't.
I was convinced, and so I had decided.
I nodded in his direction, crossing my arms over my chest, as I signaled with my eyes back to him.
I'll help you.
"I'm really glad you're okay, Eren." I mumbled, as I grabbed his hand. He was sitting in a hospital bed, one he had been forced into though he didn't really need it. The woman whom he had been interrogating had suddenly started choking him, and his oxygen had been cut off for too long. But now that he was feeling completely fine, the doctors still wanted to keep an eye on him. So he had been told to stay in the bed to rest, while they waited for the results of the tests that they had taken this morning. I understood their worries – there could have been done some damage to Eren's brain, since it had gone without oxygen for so long, but it still seemed unfair that he wasn't allowed to even walk outside to get some fresh air.
"Me too," Eren said, sending me a crooked smile, though his eyes couldn't hide the fatigue that he was experiencing. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards him. Eren had gone through so much. His whole life he had been treated as nothing more than dirt, and now that things finally was starting to go in the right direction, something like this happened. He didn't deserve this – he deserved better. He wasn't supposed to have such an experience like this – he wasn't supposed to be traumatized and hurt like this.
"How are you feeling right now?" I asked, ignoring that I sounded like an overprotective mother.
"I'm fine, Armin! That's the third time you've asked me today," Eren chuckled, clearly thinking the same thing that I was. I laughed as well, letting go of his hand and leaning back in the chair.
"Sorry, sorry," I said, holding up my hands in a defensive position for a few seconds, before resting them in my lap.
"So … " I started out a few minutes after, nervous about how I should handle this. "You were really lucky that Levi was there, huh?"
Eren tilted his head, raising an eyebrow at me. He was probably wondering where I was going with this. I had to admit that I had my own doubts as well. Was this even a good idea?
"Yeah, I guess … " He mumbled, shrugging.
"We were actually in the cafeteria when it happened," I continued, still looking at Eren with focused eyes. "When some of the guards called him to tell that something had happened to you, he just threw everything he was holding, and started running to your rescue. It was really … something else," I said quietly, looking at him to try and notice the changes in his face. My story clearly had made an impression, because he looked very surprised, his jaw dropped and eyebrows raised.
"R-Really?"
I nodded, and when his cheeks turned pink, he quickly looked away.
"The guard couldn't do CPR the correct way, so if Levi hadn't been there, you might have been dead," I continued, as if we were having the most casual conversation ever. "He really saved your life."
"I know that,"
"Are you sure about that? You don't seem very … Thankful,"
"Cut it out, Armin!" Eren finally snapped, looking back at me. I sighed, as I recognized Eren's anger. He always got like this, when I tried to push him and he didn't want to be pushed. Eren was known to be stubborn, but somehow I still found myself to be amazed by how much he could ignore in the attempt to get his way.
"Sorry," I repeated myself, and another minute went by where there were nothing but silence between us.
"Don't you think that you still lo – "
"When the hell did you start to care so much about what I think about Levi? And by the way, didn't you think that Levi was bad for me?" He interrupted me, looking at me annoyed, crossing his arms. I shrugged, trying to look like it didn't really mean anything.
"I guess I changed my mind, when I saw how he rushed to your side, the second he heard that you were hurt. It doesn't get more clear than that," I stated firmly. This seemed to shake Eren a bit, if only a little. "Doesn't that say something about him?"
"Well, just because it says something about him, doesn't mean that it says something about me," He hissed, before huffing a low 'Hmpf!'. I sighed once more, starting to slowly doubt that he would ever realize his feelings.
There was clearly no way that he could be convinced through ways. Something bigger had to happen, before he could break through the wall that he had put up himself, trying to distance himself.
I still couldn't help but get a little frustrated, though. That Eren was intentionally keeping himself from potential happiness. And the worst part of it was that it was so easy to see that Eren still cared – he just refused to admit it.
Something buzzed in my pants, and I pulled up my phone to look at the screen. Levi was calling me? I had only gotten his number yesterday, and he was already calling me like this? It felt so … Secretive. I felt like I was really lying to Eren.
"Who's calling you?" Eren asked in the same moment, giving me a slight jump scare.
"Huh? U-Um … It's Levi," I mumbled, quickly standing up and running out of the room, before Eren could ask me more questions.
"Hello?" I put the phone up to my ear.
"How's it going so far?"
"It's impossible. There's no way to make him realize it if we just talk to him about it. We need some kind of trigger. Some kind of big gesture … And I'm not talking about giving him flowers. I mean, something that will make him either insanely angry or jealous."
There was a long pause, almost to the extent where I started to feel uncomfortable. I was just about to say his name, before he spoke again.
" … I have an idea,"
Alright, next chapter is the last! *cries* and then it's overrrrrr
Oh well. This chapter was a bit short, but that's because the last chapter is damn long! I'm serious, it was 4K, and then you all wanted lots of smut, so now it's over 6K! But oh well, I had to make it a good and long chapter, because ... it's ... the lassstttt oneeee *cries more*